Conference

We are in the midst of a housing crisis that affects all Londoners. Rents and house prices continue to rise, overcrowding is endemic and social housing is scarce. More homes are being built but nowhere near enough to meet demand or provide genuinely affordable housing for low-income Londoners. How is this crisis – and possible solutions to it – being documented? On Tuesday, 12 July 2016, LSE London presented over a dozen… Read More

On 23 June 2016, we hosted the final conference of our HEIF 5 project on accelerating housing production in London. Over the last 18 months LSE London has been discussing how to accelerate the supply of new housing in London with experts from government, industry and academia. We are now finalising our findings and recommendations about how the Mayor’s housing goals might most effectively be supported, both immediately and over the longer term…. Read More

On Friday 1 April 2016 we held a seminar to celebrate the publication of Milestones in European Housing Finance, edited by Jens Lunde and Christine Whitehead at the LSE. The seminar was sponsored by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Twelve of the authors and a similar number of experts and practitioners in the field of housing finance attended. The main event was a roundtable on the latest evidence on how housing finance… Read More

How can we provide good affordable housing in expensive cities — and who should live in these homes? Using European examples Kath Scanlon explores various ways of financing and allocating social housing, and ask how <<social>> is understood in different countries at the ETH Wohnforum. One of the main platforms for knowledge transfer is the annual ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE conference, which has taken place in Zurich every spring since 2005…. Read More

On Thursday 28 January, 2016, LSE London and London Chamber of Commerce & Industry co-hosted the first mayoral hustings titled ‘Why I should be Mayor of London Tomorrow’, a public debate amongst the candidates from main political parties. The event was arranged by London Tomorrow, a thought leadership initiative to lay out thoughts seeking to inform and influence local politicians on issues concerning London. Tony Travers introduced the event noting that this… Read More

Christine Whitehead discusses barriers to accelerating housing delivery at the New Ideas for Housing: Tools for accelerating delivery, New Architecture London event. An excerpt: Findings from our last project: topics to address before the Mayoral election The uncertainties introduced by the planning negotiation process—especially viability and s106; The near disappearance of small and medium-sized builders from the London market; The potential role of Housing Zones; Whether the Mayor has the right powers in connection with new development; How the GLA and local authorities could… Read More

On October 12th we hosted our final event of our year-long project, Housing in London: Addressing the Supply Crisis. We provided an opportunity for different stakeholders ranging from academics, local politicians, developers, planners, and other representatives from the private and public sector to discuss the recommendations from our final report. Other points of conversation were ways in which we could the debate forward, particularly in light of government announcements and the upcoming… Read More

On September 17-18, 2015 Melissa Fernandez and Kath Scanlon presented a paper and participated in the 2-day academic/practitioner workshop in the Geffrye Museum called ‘Putting the Social into Alternative Housing’, marking the end of Dr Michaela Benson’s ESRC project.

Christine Whitehead presents at an ARC sponsored symposium titled ‘Illuminating the black box of housing and health’, Univerisity of Adelaide. Presentation titled, ‘Housing affordability and policy change: impacts on wellbeing in the UK‘. Some conclusions on housing: Housing specific subsidies of all types have been a major benefit, limiting housing poverty through supply, below market rents and income support. In the social sector in particular HAs have provided management support and security… Read More

This post-election event and expert panel offered a chance to discuss the main recommendations that have emerged from the project thus far about accelerating housing development in London. The briefing paper for the event can be downloaded here. Attendees included policymakers, architects, housing developers, academics, students, non-profit sector representatives and local authority officers. The lively, engaging discussion covered a range of topics, including the need for more proactive, pragmatic leadership around housing delivery,… Read More